IMC: First of all, how will you fund the campaign? Will you take any PAC money?

Gordon: No, I\'m not taking any PAC money. The campaign is going to be funded exclusively on individual contributions. I\'ll be following the maximum guidelines, $300 dollars from a single person.

IMC: Will you consider cross endorsement with the DFL?

Gordon: No I won\'t. It will be easier for me to clarify my identity and my positions running outside the DFL, Republican, or the Independence party just seeking the Green Party endorsement. It may be that I might consider endorsements with other organizations and smaller parties. I\'m interested in talking to people from Progressive Minnesota,labor organizations, environmental organizations but I want to run as a Green and that is the only major party endorsement I\'m seeking.

IMC: What do you think of Chief Olson? Should he be ousted?

Gordon: I think its difficult not being on the council and not having any kind of relationship with him. It does look at this time that Minneapolis might be better off with a different chief. But we\'re not going to solve all the problems just by changing the chief. We really have to look at some other kinds of reforms-rebuilding the trust between the citizens and the police, trying to get citizen groups to sit down with the police. And there\'s other things-like the use of CODEFOR-that I seriously question: the racial profiling that\'s been going on, a powerless civilian review board that is, as far as I can see, placating people. The other thing that I\'ve been thinking about is a board of police commissioners, which some cities have. They\'re elected, and it\'s their job to oversee the police. They have to answer to the people through elections. So I want to look at that and see if that doesn\'t make more sense. Even if it\'s only a part time position, but one [which could have] real power.

Its too bad that that we hired somebody from so far outside the system... If it looks like the council is going to be endorsing him, somebody should put some really clear performance standards or goals on him and some expectations that if you\'re going to serve any more then we\'re going to expect you to meet these [standards]. And that would be something that I would want to do or have somebody do if it looked like there weren\'t enough votes to remove him.

IMC: What about Abuka Sanders and CODEFOR?

Gordon: I think that is an example of when the police seem to be overstepping their bounds. There have been more and more murders, more and more suspicious looking things-maybe murder is too strong-but I should say deaths. The police certainly haven\'t been convicted of murder or anything! But questionable killings we could say. CODEFOR seems to give permission for discriminatory practices. It\'s kind of saying if you live in one part of the city, you can get away with smaller crimes, and we won\'t be harassing you so much, but if you live in these certain targeted areas, we\'re going to have less leniency. It would be really interesting to get some outside groups to look at what kind of discrimination is going on. I think it\'s racial discrimination, but I also think it\'s cultural. If you have the \"wrong\" kind of clothing, or different kind of clothing, or different kind of jewelry or different kind of hair... I\'m sure that there are certain ages that get targeted too. I think that young males probably get targeted more...

IMC: Young, both black and white males?

Gordon: Yeah, I think they might... I think young adolescents and teenagers are [considered] suspect, and if they\'re in certain areas, on street corners, it ends up that freedoms are taken away. So I\'m concerned.

IMC: Since Seattle 1999, do you think there is now a new anti-capitalism movement? First of all, what do you think about that, and second of all, how do you see the Green Party fitting into that? Also, what do you think is the relationship between the Greens and the media as regards these issues?

Gordon: The relationship between the Greens or the campaigns with the media is a huge issue. The aftermath of Seattle is probably a separate issue. I think it provides the Greens with an opportunity to fill a clear void. What we saw in Seattle was a lot of different people coming together, maybe with different interests-especially the environmental interests with the labor interests. I think they both saw how the World Trade Organization (WTO), and NAFTA, and huge corporate welfare was not looking out for their interests. We all know that the major parties are the people that brought us the WTO, and NAFTA, and GATT, and clearly the Greens are outside of and against that. What I\'ve wanted to do by helping to build the Green Party in Minnesota these last years, is to make a welcoming home where those issues can be the driving force in terms of workers rights, and preserving democracy, and making sure that civic life comes first-not corporate life-and making sure that it\'s people in democracy that get to have a say over corporations and capitalism. It\'s a great opportunity to fill the void, because clearly the people want somebody to challenge what\'s going on, and the Green Party seems well positioned to do so. I think Nader was a pretty good candidate in terms of having the knowledge and the strength to challenge head-on the corporations and the way that campaigns are funded. I do think it would be important for media outlets and papers to try and be objective and try to be... well, I think that objectivity is impossible, in many ways...

IMC: Nobody is objective; we\'re all biased...

Gordon: So let those biases be known, but also try to be fair. There could potentially even be more strength in terms of serving the people if there was an open-mindedness and it wasn\'t just the Green Party-I think the progressive movement in general needs some media which will give them a chance to speak. Pacifica Radio is something that comes to mind, some of the smaller radio stations, community supported radio. A lot of times we are shut out of major media...some of us see the mainstream media as becoming more and more corporate, and more and more conservative. So there\'s a need and there\'s a void.

IMC: Just as an aside, what do you think of the so-called (I guess that gives my bias away) alternative media, I mean aside from Indymedia: City Pages, Pulse?

Gordon: I know the publisher of the Pulse and I think he tries and sometimes he does offer some real alternative coverage. There was a little paper, the Siren, that folded, that had a bit of hope. I almost think that the more the viable ones can keep going, the better off we are. I really think that when City Pages sold out a while ago to a larger firm that owns several other papers in the cities, it seems to have really gone downhill, and there was less of an effort to cover the hard city issues. I think it\'s great that we have alternatives out there, and its great that Indymedia comes out with an alternative paper too. I wish them luck and I hope they\'re able to [raise the funds] they need to keep publishing. I value the little neighborhood papers, the Southwest Journal is pretty good. They have a pretty big distribution, and they sometimes look at the city issues a lot more closely than the so-called Minneapolis paper, the Star Tribune (which is more the suburban paper, it seems like).

Contact Cam Gordon: (612) 332-6210; gordo030@tc.umn.edu.